"Think you can do it?"

"Sure. You did it, didn't you? Anything you can do, I can do better!" Dee said.

"This is different though. You're taking a life. I'm serious, Xiaohu," Manchu said looking sober.

"I think I can. I'm pretty certain, yes."

"If you don't think you can do it, you better tell them now so they can find someone else."

She glared at him. "It's a little late for that. I will do this. If I don't, Po Sin will think less of me than he does now. If he thinks anything of me at all."

"Why do you care what that old man says? He might be an Elder, but he doesn't have respect for you. You work just as hard as anyone else in this triad and he still treats you like an outsider."

"I dunno. Sometimes I just wish he'd se me as a real member. Did you hear him at the last gathering?" She rolled her eyes as she tugged her tabby boots on. "He was praising that idiot, Feng. How either one of them managed to make it into the triad is beyond me."

Manchu gave a shrug. "Everyone says she's changed."

"Yeah, and I'm the Empress of China. When she can prove it, I'll believe it," she said, tucking her long braid of bright red hair into her hood and securing it with a pin. "Why was she in Gotham anyway? Isn't there enough for that brat to do in Metropolis?"

"She was sent here because they're thinking of transferring her to Gotham. They want to move some of the members around I guess. You should've talked to her. Her Chinese has really improved!"

"No thanks. As long as I can maintain a distance from her, I will. I saw the looks she was giving me when she thought I wasn't looking." Sighing, she checked her backpack for the equipment she carried on all jobs. "Ok, I've got to get out of here before someone thinks I'm ditching on this job. I'll let you know how it went the second I get back."

"Don't forget to drink some of the blood!" he said before she rushed out the door.

Waving an affirmative sign to him, she hurried to meet with the assassin who would be showing her the ropes.

~ ~ ~

Assassin Shun briefed Dee on how the job would go. He would take her to where the man they were after lived, point her to an entry, and observe as she completed the task. The orders were for her to go in, shift into a large feline, kill the man, and leave. At no point when she was in the building was she to turn into a human unless absolutely necessary.

Dee had time enough to deal with the idea that she was about to commit her first murder as the two hurried through the rooftop shadows. When they came to the old building at the edge of Gotham's Upper West Side, Shun pointed to an entry point for Dee. It was a balcony door, which had been left partially open on this warm night. Nodding her understanding, she silently slipped down to the balcony floor, landing in the shape of a small Siamese cat.

Without a sound she glided through the open door and followed the directions she had been given. She found the study where the man was supposed to be easily enough, only he wasn't there. A noise in the hall caught her attention and she peeked her head around the study door. Her target stood in the dimly lit hall with a glass of iced tea in his hand, dressed in a smoking jacket and silk pajamas.

She trotted out and toward the man, wasting no time. The man noticed the movement and opened his mouth to speak. Whatever it was he was going to say turned to a scream of terror as Dee shifted smoothly into a leopard and lunged at the man's throat. There was a splashing crash as the glass hit the floor, skittering ice cubes all over.

For a moment she had to force herself to keep her crushing grip on the man's windpipe. Then the blood came. As the coppery, salty tang spread across her tongue, the warm scent hit her nostrils. The man gurgled and squirmed as his neck hung from her jaws. The smell and the motion tickled a hidden memory at the back of her brain. One she had not known was there, one that had not existed until she put the ring on. With a shake of her head, she heard the snap of his neck and felt the tear of his flesh as he fell from her mouth. Blood spurted everywhere from the gaping hole where there once had been a whole neck.

As she bent her head to better sniff the blood, a crash from out where she had entered sent a shock to her system. She then remembered who she was and what she was supposed to do. Quickly, her body shrank back to the Siamese cat she had been when she entered. Preparing to head back to Shun, she stopped and remembered Manchu's words. She had to drink some of the blood. There was plenty of it to choose from, splashed as it was all over the hallway tiles. Bending her head to the nearest pool, she lapped up what she hoped was enough. It tasted good.

The black caped figure that rushed into view spooked her. Puffing up, she hissed at the masked man that could only be Batman. Grim faced, he looked from the body to her and back. The man looked around at the blood, and his expression became angrier. Realizing that he didn't know she had just killed this man, Dee flicked her tail high and ran out between his legs, leaving a trail of little bloody paw prints.

{It is done,} she said when she made it to where Shun waited for her.

{Did he see you?}

He was asking about Batman, not the man she went in for. She nodded. {I remained as a cat, just as I was instructed to do. He didn't even bother with me.}

{Excellent. We shall tell the Elders of the success tonight.}

Knowing that the man had been watching the whole time, Dee simply nodded and said nothing more. There was no way she was going to tell him or anyone else, if she could help it, what had happened when she had first tasted blood.
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